As Yelizaveta Belyaeva, a student with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), told in social networks, during the attack on the Perm State National Research University, where 18-year-old Timur Bekmansurov burst in on the morning of September 20 and started shooting people, they had a lecture. Yelizaveta's story leads the publication properm.ru.
“We were at the lecture when the terrorist attack began, the shelling, you can call it what you want. And you know what? Everything was decided by luck”, - she said.
Yelizaveta believes that the life of her and her classmates was saved by her mother, and not by the teacher, who, ignoring the terrorist attack, continued to lecture, doing nothing to protect people. Due to illness, Yelizaveta is confined to a wheelchair, and her mother accompanied her in class.
“By some miracle, I ended up on the fifth floor, and not on the second, although according to the schedule we were supposed to have lectures on the second floor. By some miracle, my mother was also lucky, who stayed on the second floor and did not come under fire when it all started”, - the girl said.
She added that her mother was lucky when she managed to reach the audience and barricade it by closing the doors.
“Our teacher didn't do anything that my mom did. Moreover, he did not even bother to stop the lecture. “Study is more important”. We sat for an hour and a half and waited for death”, - the student said.
According to the student, "the rescuers drove too long".
“During this time, it seems to me, I have experienced several lives. At first, when I almost lost my mother. And then when they started banging on the door. Seconds turned into minutes, minutes into hours. I prayed. I thought about those whom I love and with whom I would like to say goodbye”, - she said.
Later it turned out that it was not the shooter who was beating at the door, but the riot police.
“We were lucky when we left the university and no one shot us from the window. But there are people who are out of luck today. And this cannot be fixed. One of them is the guard of the eighth building. Even in the morning I greeted him, and he smiled and held the door. We saw his corpse. I cannot convey in words how scary it is. You cannot understand this until you feel it on your own skin”, - the student wrote on the social network “Instagram”.
She added that she kept a dictaphone recording of the lecture. Yelizaveta does not have time to write down the teacher by hand, so she saves the information on a dictaphone in order to make a summary later.
“I sent this tape to journalists. As a result, now this teacher is turning everything inside out, accusing us of panic. I can't leave it that way, because everything he says is one big lie. And we saved his life, you know, for a minute”, - said Yelizaveta.
In turn, the teacher Oleg Syromyatnikov told reporters that the dean told him on the phone to continue his lesson. According to Syromyatnikov, it was he who closed the metal door of the auditorium from the inside, which was supposedly impossible to break through with a shot.
“The mother of one student started the panic. The student's mother asked everyone to sit under their desks. From my seat, it was funny for me to watch the students, sitting on the floor under the desk, trying to write notes. Everyone must do their job. Was I supposed to sit silently at this moment and look at the students? I continued my lecture”, - he explained.
Subsequently, it turned out that the guard, whom the frightened students considered dead, remained alive, he is in a hospital in serious condition.
As noted by RBC, the press service of the Perm State National Research University reported that the teacher Oleg Syromyatnikov, who continued to lecture during the shooting, closed the audience from the inside, and this is "the most important thing".
"Continuing the lecture is also important, it is important to continue some routine action so as not to panic", - the publication quotes the university commentary.
The press service of the Perm State National Research University noted that in this way Syromyatnikov "decided that there was no need to panic".
“Of course, stress was experienced not only by students, but also by teachers, but the most important thing was that he locked himself in”, - the university said.
The teacher himself also told reporters that after reports of the shooting, he called the dean, who told him to continue his lesson.
“I remained calm and continued my lecture”, - he said.
The shooting began to appear on social media right after the first shots were fired. 18 minutes after the start of the shooting at the university, the students told the teacher about it. Social media users urged everyone to barricade themselves. However, Syromyatnikov decided to simply continue his lesson.
Earlier it was reported that on the morning of September 20, 18-year-old university student Timur Bekmansurov opened the shooting at people on the PSNRU campus. On the eve of the attack, he posted a manifesto on social media. Six people became victims of the attack, another 28 people were injured. During the arrest, the shooter himself was wounded. There are 20 people in hospitals, nine of them are in serious condition. Into the attack opened a criminal case under Part. 2, Art. 105 of the Criminal Code (murder of two or more persons).
After the shooting, the university switched to distance learning.